Chenille tufting machine



Jan. 12, 1943. E. BILLS EIAL 2,308,438

CHENILLE TUFTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 3, 1939 F'ral.

Fla. 5.

INVENTOR Ira [Bi/l5 3' William Pmb A T TORNE Y Patented Jan. 12, 1943CHENILLE TUFTING MACHINE Ira E. Bills and William B. Pater, Dalton, Ga.,as-

signors of three-fourths to Patey Enterprises, Inc., a corporation ofGeorgia, and one-fourth to Carmack Waterhouse, Dayton, Tenn.

Application August 3,1939, Serial No. 288,114

8 Claims.

My invention relates to sewing machines and more particularly to sewingmachines with attachments thereon for forming loops of yarn in fabricand clipping them to produce a series of tufts, commonly referred to aschenille.

In the prior art, various forms of attachments have been employed toproduce chenille products. It is common practice to use a conventionalsewing machine head and to mount beneath the bed plate adjacent the pathof travel of the needle an attachment employing a looper for catchingand holding the loops of yarn as they are formed by the needle in thefabric on the bed plate. It is also common practice to provide some formof cutter to clip either in-- dependently or in cooperation with acutting edge on the loop. successive loops to form piles.

Keeney 1,855,196 and Boyce 1,963,349 illustrate a type of attachmentemploying a cutter blade pivotedly mounted on and carried by the looperand which responds to the movements of the looper to bring such cuttingblade into and out of cutting relation to said looper.

In the Keeney structure the spring for urging the knife often weakensand permits it to sag and the looper runs off of and places undue strainupon the feed dog shafts. Since movable with the feed dogs, it isdifiicult to keep the looper and blade in synchronism with the needledue to the lack of adjustment. It may be said that the Boyce actuatingstructure is large, cumbersome and inaccurate, due to play and lostmotion.

Since all of these structures work upon the principle of always holdingan uncut loop to prevent the needle from pulling the strand of yarn outof the fabric. slack always develops in these slow-moving loopermachines causing the loops to pile up on each other on the looper andoften results in the cutter clipping the last formed loop and leavingthe first formed loop on the looper, resulting in skip stitching, doublestitching and choking up, and occasionally tearine, of the cloth.

O h r structures in the prior art. such as White 2.1 0385 mounts thecutter and looper on separate pivots, then joins them through a commonpivot at the upper end. He also provides and in the case of White, thelower end of the looper is separate to accomplish this result. Thisgreatly increases the vertical movement of the looper and makes itdiflicult to cut all loops evenly.

Applicants with a knowledge of all of these defects in and objections tothe prior art have as an object of their invention the provision of anattachment for sewing machines employing a swinging looper mounted on astationary and fixed pivot actuated by a cutter pivotally joinedtherewith and mounted on a floating pivot which acts both as a mountingfor the knife and as a means for swinging such knife into and out ofcutting relation with the looper, while serving by the movement of thecutter to swing the looper into and out of operating position.

In this way, the separate stationary pivot for the cutter is dispensedwith. The use of the stationary pivot for the looper gives it a fixedpath, reduces its vertical movement and aids in the uniformity ofcutting of the tufts.

Applicants have, as another object of their invention, the provision ofa tufting attachment for a sewing machine which is actuated from thecentral shaft and independently from the feed dogs thus rendering iteasier to synchronize with and be adjusted with respect to the needlebar and feed mechanism.

Applicants have, as a further object of their invention, the provisionof removable and replaceable cutter blades and hooks of harder toolsteel thanthe other elements of the attachments to withstand the wear ontheir cutting portions.

Applicants have, as another object of their invention. the provision ofhis attachment for sewing machines including the adjustments for thelooper and the cutter to vary the number of loops held on the looper andto adjust thee cutter with respect to the looper, and the provision ofadjusting means and moving the looper towards and away from the needle.

Applicants have, as a still further object of their invention, theprovision of an attachment having a looper that moves with a varyingspeed whereby it moves very rapidly near the plane of the path of theneedle and very slowly near the opposite end of its path, thus actingquickly to catch the loop and move it away from the needle and to bealmost stationary during the cutting operation, so that the cuttingblade moves but slightly during the loop catching operation and veryrapidly at the rear of the stroke of the looper to clip the innermostloop very quickly.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will appear from thefollowing specification and accompanying drawing and the novel featuresthereof will be particularly pointed out in the annexed claims.

In the drawing, Figure 1' is a fragmental end view partly in section ofa sewing machine upon which is mounted our improved tufting attachment.Figure 2 is a fragmental sectional view of the same machine andattachment taken along the lines 2, 2 of Figure 1. Figure 3 is a detailof a modified cutter for my improved attachment.

Referring to the drawing in detail, designates the conventional bedplate of a sewing machine carrying a conventional throat plate 2 whichis recess seated in the upper face of the bed plate. A reciprocatingneedle is designated at 3 which needle is carried by the usualreciprocating needle bar and sewing head (not shown). The needle 3 has aconventional eye through which the strand of yarn passes and above theeye is a groove for the passage of the hook of the attachment as moreparticularly described hereinafter. Adjacent the needle 3 and incooperation therewith is the conventional presser foot 4 which ismounted upon and carried by the head of the sewing machine (not shown)in the usual manner. Beneath the bed plate a foot i projects downwardlyand serves as a mounting for the frame ii of the attachment and alsoserves as a bearing for the conventional central shaft 8 of the machine.

On either side of the central shaft 8 is mounted the usual rocker shafts5 and B which serve to actuate the feed dog mechanism in the usual andwell known manner. As is well known in the art, the central shaft 8 andthe rocker shafts 5, 6 are actuated from the main shaft in the head ofthe machine (not shown) and are joined to it by individual connectingrods in the conventional manner. These features, however, are well knownin the art and no novelty is claimed upon them.

The frame II is mounted on the foot III by means of 3 or more set screws|2 which pass through the frame II and screw thread into the foot ID.The lower end of the frame II is split or bifurcated and the splitterminates into a transverse bore through the frame which accommodatesor receives a disc H which in turn has an off center opening interiorlyscrew threaded to receive a gland nut |5 which carries a lock nut l 6.The disc I4 is exteriorly threaded and screws into the bore in frame Thegland nut l5 has a bore extending therethrough for the accommodation ofshaft 2|] and has beveled inner faces at the opening of such gland. Theshaft 20 is partially threaded having nuts II with conical faces forcooperation with the gland nut I5 to form a hearing. There are also locknuts [8 and Is to maintain the conical faced nuts in position.Interposed between the front conical faced nuts I 1 and the lock nut 9is a looper mounted rigidly thereon for rotation therewith. The looperextends upwardly from the shaft 20 in the form of an arm 2| and has alaterally extending portion adjacent to the top with an openingtherethrough and a sleeve 3| to form a bearing on the rear of said armand registered with said opening. Disposed within the opening andcarried by the arm is a shaft 21 which extends through the sleeve 3| andprojects on beyond it. Mounted upon the end of the shaft 21 by means ofa set screw 29 is a collar 28 and disposed between the collar 28 a andthe end of sleeve 3| and passing about the shaft 21 is a coil spring 30for urging the shaft through the sleeve 3| for a purpose to be indicatedhereinafter.

Joined to the front end of the shaft 21 is a cutter arm 25, having ablade 24 adiustably mounted thereon by means of a set screw 23 whichpasses through a slot in the arm 25 and screws into or passes throughthe blade 24.

The free end of the cutter arm 25 has passing therethrough an openingfor the reception of a pin 9 which is in turn mounted upon a disc 1 onthe shaft 8. The disc 1 passes through and is partially disposed withinan opening in the upper part of the frame The pin 9 is set in of! centerrelation to the shaft and disc and describes an arc during theoscillation of the disc 1.

To the upper end of the arm 2| is mounted a removable hook 22 of hardtool steel by means of set screws passing through the hook into orthrough the arm 2|. If desired. the hook 22 may be recess seated in thearm 2|, and the heads of the screws 23 may be counter sunk therein as isthe case with screw heads I2. To the side of the frame II is mounted aneedle guide 32 by means of a set screw 33.

Passing through the lower end of the frame and bridging the splitportions thereof is a machine screw i3 having a screw threaded end whichis threaded into one portion of the frame passing through the otherportion for the purpose of drawing the portions together and reducingthe size of the split to clamp disc M, in any desired position.

In its operation, the needle 3 reciprocates up and down in a verticalplane carrying a strand of yarn (not shown) through a fabric on theupper surface of the bed plate I. 2 is provided with the usual tuftingslot for the reception of the needle and removal of the tufts. Theneedle passing through the fabric with its strand of yarn on downthrough the throat plate forms a loop in the fabric as it moves back up.At the beginning of this operation, the pin 3 is swung over to the leftto its furthest extremity so that the hook 22 is to the left of theneedle viewed in Figure 1 and the cutter blade 24 is in closed positionwith the cutting edge on the looper hook 22. During this downwardmovement of the needle, the pin 9 gradually moves in a counterclockwisedirection and this movement being from the mid-vertical position towardsthe lower extremity of the arc quickly opens the blade 24, 25, but itfirst slowly moves the hook 22 towards the plane of the path of theneedle 3 since the path of the pins movement is in an almost verticalplane. As the pin 9 nears its lower extremity of travel, it begins tomove more in a horizontal plane and less in a vertical plane so that thehook greatly accelerates its speed towards the needle and quicklyintersects the plane of the path of the needle as such needle begins torise. The hook 22 passing along the groove above the eye of the needle3, catching the loop of yarn. It then passes on up and out of the fabricto the position indicated in Figure 1. At this time, the loop is held bythe hook 22 and the pin 9 has reversed its direction of travel, movingin a clock-wise direction from its lower extremity towards themid-vertical position on the extreme left. This causes the hook toquickly move back out of the plane of the path of the needle and as thepin continues its upward movement the hook greatly decreases its speedwhile the cutter blade 24 quickly moves towards the cutting edge of thehook 22 and would clip the loop on the hook if it were co-extensive withsuch hook. This operation is repeated and another loop is thrown uponthe hook, resulting in the clipping of the innermost loop contained onsuch hook. This operation is completed over and over again successivelyforming piles or tufts in the cloth. During these operations, theconventional feed dogs are actuated by the oscillation of shafts and 6causing the cloth to be progressively moved through the machine as thetufts are formed and clipped.

Figure 3 shows a detail in modified form of cutter, employing anadjustable bearing 36 mounted upon the ring end of the arm 25 by meansof screws 31--31 passing through slots 39. The screws 31-31 may eitherscrew into the arm or pass through it where they engage individualscrews to maintain them in position.

So it will be noted that the arm 25 is pivotally joined through shaft 21to the looper 2i and serves to swing the looper back and forth upon itspivot. The spring 30 always urges the blade 24 into close engagementwith the hook 22, clipping the loops of yarn on such hook and alwaysmaintaining the hook and blade in tight rubbing engagement to realize amaximum shearing efiect.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper positioned beneath the fabric to pass between the strandof yarn and the needle, a cutter pivotally joined to and supported onthe looper, a shaft positioned beneath the fabric, said cutter beingalso pivotally supported on said shaft in off center relation thereto,whereby said shaft acting on said cutter actuates said looper andcutter.

2. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a swinging looper pivotally mounted beneath the fabric to passbetween the needle and the strand of yarn, a cutter pivotally joined tothe looper, said cutter being mounted on and carried by a moving pivotpositioned beneath the fabric, whereby the said pivot acting throughsaid cutter actuates the cutter and looper to catch said loops and clipthem.

3. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper positioned beneath the fabric to pass between the needleand the strand of yarn, a cutter, an oscillating shaft, means forpivotally mounting said cutter on said looper and said oscillatingshaft, said means including a swinging pin, which pin acts through saidcutter to actuate said cutter and looper into and out of cuttingrelation with each other.

4. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper pivotally mounted beneath the fabric to pass between theneedle and the strand of yarn to catch the loops and hold them, acentral shaft, a pin in off-center position on said shaft, a cutterpivotally joined to said looper and pin and carried solely by them toclip the loops on the looper.

5. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper positioned beneath the fabric to passbetween the strando yarn and the needle, a shaft positioned beneath the fabric, a pin onsaid shaft, and a cutter pivotally mounted on said pin and said loopersolely, whereby movement of said pin is transmitted to said looperthrough said cutter for catching said loops and clipping them.

6. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper pivotally mounted beneath the fabric to pass between theneedle and the strand of yarn to catch and hold the loops, a cutterpivotally mounted on to the looper, a central shaft positioned beneaththe fabric, a pin on said central shaft, said cutter being alsopivotally mounted on said pin, whereby movement of the pin actuates thelooper and cutter into and out of cutting relation.

'7. A combination of the character described comprising areciprocating'needle for carrying a strand of yarn down through afabric, a bed plate for supporting said fabric, a frame mounted on theunder side of the bed plate, a looper pivoted on the frame, a shaft, acutter carried by said shaft, said cutter being also pivotally mountedon the looper to actuate it into and out of cutting relation with thecutter.

8. A combination of the character described comprising a reciprocatingneedle for carrying a strand of yarn down through a fabric to formloops, a looper pivotally mounted beneath said fabric to pass betweenthe strand of yarn and the needle, a shaft beneath said fabric, a cutterbridging said shaft and looper and pivotally mounted upon them, wherebythe movement of said shaft actuates the cutter and looper to catch andsever said loops.

IRA E. BILLS.

WILLIAM B. PA'I'EY.

